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I'm glad the parents are allowing there child to wear the clothes she wants, wear her hair the way she wants, and do the things she wants to do. Does this mean that she is trans gender, I have no idea, but she shouldn't be forced into a traditional gender role if she doesn't have interest.

Now, as far as taking hormones to stunt puberty or kids going through sexual reassignment surgery I'm not sure about. Kid's aren't allowed to do certain things because they don't always analyze things like they will when they mature. There are lots of girls that likes boy things when they were kids or even still do once they are adult, but their tastes change throughout their life.

Wow - way too young for her or her parents to make that decision. I was very tomboyish at the same age, and according to my parents, I also used to talk about growing up to be a boy. Here I am, 27 years old now, still loving sports, G.I. Joe, and other tomboyish things, but I am fine with being a female. Just because a girl might like "boy" interests, or vice versa, doesn't mean a gender switch is in order.

As mentioned above, many fail to realize that people do go through changes - the way the kid is right now may not be the way the kid wants to be when older.

That said, I think too often things are over-diagnosed. It has changed the way people view issues into immediately asking "what's wrong?" The studies and research are anything but conclusive, and to make such an absolute diagnosis will have long-term affects on how parents deal with this issue. It's sad that people need a diagnosis to justify something.

Stereotypes have negative connotations, but they wouldn't exist if there wasn't a sense of truth to them. This is not to advocate rigidity of gender roles, it simply speaks to the concept of normal distribution - the population tends to center around the most common/prevalent categories (e.g. male and female roles).

To be honest, I do not think hormone treatments and reassignment surgeries are "right" in terms of feeling comfortable with your mind and body. I think the social backlash many people experience pushes them to do a lot of things to legitimate their lifestyles (in this case the two aforementioned acts) instead of simply living life freely.